'Shroom ID?

[Nagual]

Hi there, I went out today with vague hope of finding something like Birch Polypore or Hoof Fungus or Cramp Balls. No such luck I'm affraid. I did come across a couple of fungi I don't know the name of, one I think is trametes gibbosa or lumpy bracket. The other no idea whatsoever.

First the possible lumpy bracket. It's a little bigger than a 50p and the gills are sort of brain like, haven't made a spore print yet.



Next the 100% unknown. roughly 2 inches long, no gills at all, looks like it was some sort of puff ball head. No obvious skirt or ring, or bulbous area at the root.






There were hundreds of the first one, and only several dozen of the second. I think I also came across what looked suspiciously like a magic mushroom - but for obvious reasons didn't pick it... No honestly.

So can anyone help with the ID at all?


Cheers, Nag.

[C_Claycomb]

I think the first one is Trametes Versicolor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trametes_versicolor
although it could be another type of many coloured polypore

Not sure about the other two.

[rrch88]

Yeah, Trametes versicolor/Turkey Tail (what I know it as) certainly sprang to mind when I saw the first picture.
The second picture does look sort of puffball-esque. Can you make out any bumps on the cap? I've seen a puffball with a bumpy almost spikey head/cap on it before, haven't managed to find it in a field guide though. The pic looks like it could be a 'on-it's-way-to-being' rotted pestle puffball/Calvatia excipuliformis.
Post the spore prints?
Rich

[Barn Owl]

Hi Nag,

They're is quite a lot of No 1 about at the moment.

No. 2 looks like it's burst like a puffball.

As for 'magic' mushrooms,they're ususally abundant in September,are small thin stemmed with a small narrow hood.

I'm no expert and tbh fungi are too easily mistaken for me to offer any meaningful answers.

[xylaria]

I agree with what has been said about the first two.

The last the piccy is very dark and the fungi looks very dead. It is not however any form of magic mushroom, as it is growing in moss. The family most hallucengic fungi come from are coprophilous ie they need warm animal scat to germinate the spore, and it can be very little time between germination and fruiting in some cases. The substrate has often not fully decomposed in these cases . My guess would be some type cortinarius because it has stipes on the stem. The spore print would be brown.

[andy_e]

The most common species of hallucinogenic fungi in the UK is found in cropped grassland, i.e. grass that's been regularly fertilised by live-stock. They actually form a mycorrhizal relationship with the grass-roots, which is why they crop up frequently on turf lawns - even years after the turf was laid. Of course, it's illegal to even pick them but AFAIK you are allowed to take photographs If you found something that looked similar in woodland it isn't the same thing.